


Remembrances

by Sokorra



Series: The "Quote" Prompt Series [2]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 08:12:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sokorra/pseuds/Sokorra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the day of his wife's supposed death, Jonathan Archer is sitting in a Garden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remembrances

_"We’re at this place in our lives, we’ve come all this way, and I got nothing to show for it.”_

_-Terry ‘Men of a Certain Age’_

* * *

 

Jon watched as students rushed around him, hurrying to their next classes.  It was a nice day, so no one took notice of the old man sitting in the gardens of the Academy. He was not in uniform, and the presidential gaurds were no longer a concern for him, as he was now retired from the position.

 

This day, despite the good weather, was not a good day for him.  It was the anniversary of Erika’s disappearance and it always hit him hard whenever it came around.  It got to the point where he could forget about it most of the year, but as soon as he saw the date all the feelings, both good and bad, would rush back to him.  

 

When she had first disappeared, he had been in denial.  He had refused to close her file, refused to call her ‘presumed dead’.  He could still recall the sympathetic looks of Malcolm and Hoshi as they watched him fight the inevitable.  Particularly Hoshi as she was one of the few people who knew what if felt like.  Malcolm had gone missing a decade or so after Erika.  The difference was that they found his body.

 

Hoshi had managed to move on, remarry, but Jon had never achieved the ability to open his heart to anyone else.  He wasn’t sure how he had been able to do it when they had been separated, but when she went missing he couldn’t?

 

Perhaps it had been the fact that he had seen a future with her in it that time.  He had imagined them growing old together, raising a child or two, training up the next generation of Starfleet Officers.   And in one day he had gone from making plans to desperately trying to hold onto the hope that those plans would come to fruition.

 

He had finally given up about five years after she had been declared missing, and about a year after they went against his wishes and declared her dead.

 

Looking around he wondered about what he was leaving behind.  These students were the future.  They were the ones who would explore, who would stand in the spots that he and Erika had stood and make simular dicisions.  He had no children to leave a legacy to, could imagine no woman as the mother of his children but Erika.

 

If she could see him now she’d soundly kick his ass.

 

“Admiral?”  Jon looked up to see one of the freshman, a medical student from the look of his uniform.  His accent reminded him of Trip, and another bit of sarrow entered his heart.

 

“Cadet.”

 

“Are you alright sir, you look quite pale.”  The boy’s eyes were filled with some concern, but he remembere the calculating look as one of a doctor checking out a patient.

 

“I’m fine, son.  Just not a good day for me.”  He smiled at the cadet, wanting to alay the boy’s concern. He didn’t want him to know that the paleness was that Jon was dying.  It was coming time to join his wife, his best friend and several of his choosen family.  It was enough that he knew this, but there was no need to share that with a boy who only saw a man who probaby could use a good glass of juice.  “Thanks for the concern.  Shouldn’t you be in class.”

 

The boy rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.  “I was supposed to attend a lecture on xenobiology, focusing on mutations caused by cross contamination between planets, but they filled up too fast.  Shouldn’t you be teaching a class?”

 

“I’m retired.”

 

“Old Spacemen like you don’t retire,” he stated, so sure of himself.

 

“Know alot of officers, do you cadet?”

 

“Been around long enough to know that there are some professions one has until death.  I’ll retire one day.  I’ve read your file, Admiral, in Starfleet History and your remind me of my Uncle who was a boat captain.  It doesn’t matter how old he thinks he is, he’ll always find his way to the helm of a ship. I imagine you will too, Sir.”

 

_Did you send this kid, Rike?  Send him to remind me its not quite over yet?_

 

“What’s your name, son?”

 

“McCoy, sir.  Leonard McCoy.”

 

“Why don’t you help me up and I’ll show you how to get the best seats in the house at that lecture of yours, filled or not filled.”

 


End file.
